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by Glynn Burridge
Today, we largely take our health for granted with the access many of us enjoy to clinics, hospitals and to a wide range of medications, all designed to keep us in good health. We are constantly bombarded by advertisements, health alerts, suggestions of our medical practitioners and by all manner of self-help books and alternative therapies to look after ourselves better. Just a brief trip to the local pharmacy will reveal the plethora of cures on hand to minister to our every ill.
It was not always so, however. Even in the relatively recent past, most people did not have access to medication which was not only expensive but also, in many cases, experimental. Instead, they relied as their forefathers had since the dawn of time, on knowledge of plants and their respective healing properties and uses as well as other treasures of the natural world.
It is perfectly natural that practitioner of this ancient art who all too often held the life or death of patients in their hands were considered as the most important persons in the community, much respected – and even feared – for the powers they possessed. The medicine man of the North American Indian, the shaman of the Steppes, the African tribal witch-doctor and even Seychelles’ very own Bonnom di bwa, among others, devoted their lives to gaining experience of Nature and using that knowledge for the benefit of their peoples. Today, as our civilization again turns to the phenomenal powers and cures of the natural world for our salvation, all across the globe we are piecing together the ancient fragments of Mother Nature’s amazing ability to heal the sick... Click here to read the article.
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